Obama, Solis Free Unions From Financial Regs

BObama enjoys using regulations to stop the growth of business and progess in America. But Obama and his sidekick Labor Secretary Hilda Solis have let labor unions escape almost alll regulations. President Bush had created many regs for unions but Obama is not enforcing any of them.Under Obama unions don’t have to reveal the value of benefits given them. Under Bush teachers and the NEA were to be tightly regulated. Obama has ignored those regs also. Teachers and union demonstraters have no idea what unions are doing with their dues.Secretary Solis has been involved in several incidents this week that show she strongly favor big unions. That is unacceptible.I hope the conservatives will call for her resignation.SHAW

Since President Obama took office, Hilda Solis, his Secretary of Labor, has steadily rolled back union financial transparency reforms initiated by President George W. Bush and his labor chief, Elaine L. Chao.

Thanks to Obama and Solis, unions don’t have to disclose the total value of all benefits received by union officers and employees.

They also no longer have to disclose the names of parties buying and selling union assets or itemize union receipts, although they do still have to itemize union expenditures. Union-operated trusts are almost completely off the financial reporting hook.

If the Bush reforms had been allowed to take full effect as Chao original designed them, unions would have had to do all of the above.

“Union integrity is the lone arena in which this administration has exhibited an appetite for deregulation,” said Chao, who now serves as a distinguished fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

“When it comes to regulations that fight union corruption, this administration has a unique take on the three R’s: repeal, rescind and retreat,” she said.

The Bush-era reforms applied only to private-sector unions, but some public-sector unions with private-sector members – most notably teachers’ unions, such as the National Education Association (NEA) – also had to abide by the new rules.

One important provision would even have required local chapters of these government unions to disclose financial information.

But because of union lawsuits that delayed implementation, that provision never took effect – and it was effectively killed once Obama took office.

As a result, the NEA is free to funnel money through local and state chapters without disclosing that activity.

That means union members protesting in Wisconsin, Indiana and elsewhere have no foolproof way to know what their leaders do with their dues.